Programming Praxis

Neil Sloane is on Numberphile again, discussing the Van Eck sequence (A181391):

The first item in the sequence is 0. Compute the next item as follows: If the previous item has not previously appeared in the sequence, add 0 to the sequence, otherwise add to the sequence the number of steps back in the sequence the previous item previously appeared. For instance, the first item is 0. Since 0 has not previously appeared in the sequence, the next item is 0. Now 0 has previously appeared, and the previous 0 was one back in the sequence, so add 1 to the sequence. Since 1 has not previously appeared, add 0. But 0 appeared previously, two back in the sequence, so add 2. Since 2 has not previously appeared, add 0. But 0 appeared previously, two items back, so add 2 to the sequence. Since 2 previously appeared in the sequence, two terms back, add another 2 to the sequence. The next item in the sequence is 1, because 2 also appeared as the previous number. Since 1 appeared in the sequence, count back to the previous 1, and add 6 to the sequence. And so on. The sequence begins 0, 0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 1, 6, 0, 5, 0, 2, 6, 5, 4, 0, ….

Your task is to write a program that generates the Van Eck sequence and investigate the properties of the sequence. When you are finished, you are welcome to ,a href=”https://programmingpraxis.com/2019/06/14/van-eck-sequence/2/”>read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

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